The Matrix: Crimson Chronicals
by Dante Cross
Summary: Matrix fan fic about an exiled ship.
1. Chapter 1

**The Matrix: _Crimson Chronicles_**

**Episode 1: Troubleshooting**

**Chapter 1**

_**Agents, Exiles and orbs**_

"Sync, Get us outa here" came the cry of Crimson, Captain of the hover ship, the Hephaestus, named after the Greek god of fire.

Crimson was medium height with brown hair, wearing his patented crimson shirt, blue jeans, Black boots and Skeleton gloves.

"Got an exit all ready for you, just follow the signs." Came the reply of Sync, Crimson's operator and friend, they'd worked on the ship for 12 years, and throughout their entire time together Sync had never given Crimson a straight answer.

"Signs? What signs?" Crimson shouted running up a set of stairs,

"Follow the Sound of music" Sync hung up.

"Music? These hints get more annoying every time!" Crimson snapped the phone shut and threw it to the floor. Seconds later it was destroyed as the Armani wannabe shoes of a perfectly groomed man in a suit ran up the stairs after him.

"Bloody agents, making me run!" Crimson grumbled jumping up the stairs, missing around 4 every time.

Upstairs Crimson could hear something; it was music, could this be the same music Sync meant? The lyrics, that'll give it away… "Phone…Ring…" that was all he could make out, but that had to be it, he began to gain speed, he was nearing the light at the end of the tunnel, the exit was just down the hall, but the agents were just behind him, he wasn't going to make it.

Ahead of him a woman had just come out of her apartment, she turned to see Crimson running at her, she reached into her pocket and as she did so she began to transform, her clothes became black and she became a he, growing taller and removing the hand from her inside pocket, and producing a gun.

No exit, no way of leaving, what to do? All these thoughts shot through Crimson's head as he dropped and slid through the agents legs, avoiding the bullets, that now had the names of the pursuing agents on them. As he slid across the floor Crimson span, getting out his twin 9mm handguns from his pocket and unloading the clip's on the agent, strangely, hitting him.

Crimson replaced the guns and rolled backwards, getting into a standing position. He turned and headed for the source of the music. Even though the agents were technically dead it wouldn't be long before they would be back on his tail.

The music was coming from three doors down, Crimson ran towards it and barged through the door, the music cut out in front of him was an old fashioned phone, coiled phone wire, turning number disc, and ringing. A bullet shot past Crimsons forehead. He looked left and there, as he knew there would be was an Agent. Crimson reached into his jacket and took out a small oval object, pulled out the pin and dropped it, running inside the room and lifting the phone to his ear.

He felt cold all over as his mind was disconnected from the link to the computer.

Azure, The Red headed Hack artist who recently joined the Hephaestus, pulled the spike, as they called it out of Crimson's head, causing a hot sensation to run through him.

"Their getting harder to outrun with every passing second" Zer0, the second in command of the Hephaestus and expert programmer, commented looking at the replay of the mission.

" Something was strange about that last agent," Crimson said getting off the log in chair, and moving over to the encoded video. "Look, I hit him, I was just trying to slow him down… but I hit him."

"It was as if he wasn't actually aiming for you in the first place" Azure was looking over Sync's shoulder trying to help with the inspection.

"Look, here's where I hit him." Crimson said looking closely. " Hey, what just happened, his Encryptions just changed drastically, that's not even an agent, it looks as if it's in exile."

"A what?"

"ksh An exile is a program that was set for deletion but didn't go back to the machine mainframe. ksh" Came a voice over the intercom system.

"Example…" Zer0 had pressed a button on the console and was waiting for an answer.

"ksh The oracle. ksh"

Crimson turned away from the screen and walked out of the room down a corridor, up a ladder and onto the bridge.

"What we got Cohalt?" Crimson said looking out of the front window of the Hephaestus.

"Apart from an idiot asking me about exiles? Nothing… except, well there's a small blip, almost undetectable, on the radar, it's been there for a while now" Cohalt had dark brown hair, white skin and, rags for clothes, as did everyone else. Cohalt was almost always sarcastic, but when he needed to be, could hack any system faster than even the computers.

"Show Me," Crimson commanded sitting into a chair just opposite the holo-viewer.

"See, nothing." Cohalt said, looking as close as possible to the holo-viewer.

"Yes there is, look" Crimson pressed a button zooming in. On the screen appeared a small orb, metallic with small instruments protruding from the sides.

"It's a tracker, the damn machines are tracing us!" Crimson said calmly. " Zer0 Man the turrets we've got a tracer." Crimson took his hand away from the com-link.

"ksh You got it cap'in ksh"Zer0 shouted back across the inter com.

The sound of running footsteps on metal sounded across the Hephaestus. Zer0 reached the turrets and strapped himself in, putting on the head set communicator.

The sound of a gunshot sounded out throughout the sewers. Then came another shot, apparently Zer0 had missed. Another shot sounded, and another, and another, until finally an explosion was heard, the orb lay in pieces scattered across the sewer floor.

"ksh Got 'im ksh" Zer0 said, as he un-strapped himself.

The pipelines were silent, the Hephaestus was going home.

**Chapter 2**

Home Sweet hell 

"I request a drop in all arms at gate 5, we have the Hephaestus on approach… open her up boys. Foods warm, Beds Made, welcome home." The operator said, giving

Cohalt clearance to enter.

The Hephaestus flew across the dock and lowered into position, landing in dock 7, gate 5. The doors to the Hephaestus opened and Crimson stepped out followed by Azure, Zer0 Sync and finally Cohalt.

Ahead of the crew was a welcome party, although it was less of a party and more of a Firing squad. They had come to arrest the Crew of the Hephaestus, the reason, was unknown to Crimson.

"You are Crimson of the Hephaestus are you not?" said the first armed escort.

"I am, what is the meaning of this?" Crimson said." Commander Loch demands your immediate presence." The Escort said.

"Then I will come," Crimson said, putting his bag on the floor, he turned and moved close to Azure, kissing her gently and then flipping a coin like device to Zer0. "You know what to do."

"Yes Cap, she'll be ready to leave ASAP" Zer0 said catching the Vira-Disc. A Vira-disc is a very complex program, which, not only is a disc, but it is a disc containing the data of every virus known to man.

"What do you think your doing?" Commander Loch said the second Crimson had shut the door.

"What do you mean… Sir?" Crimson knew the second that Loch had spoken what he'd done.

"Explain your actions,"

"I didn't believe my actions needed explaining, Sir."

"You disobeyed a direct order."

"I allowed the Neberkaneza to Jack in."

"I specifically told you not to allow Neo into the Matrix."

"I believe that he is the way forward. And I believe that this is something he must do. For the Zion and us." Crimson finished his speech and Loch glared at him.

"You disobeyed a direct order."

"I helped Zion to survive."

The door opened suddenly.

"Sir" a soldier had come in. "It's the Neberkaneza, It's requesting help, Morpheous, Trinity and Neo are stuck in the matrix."

"They got in on their own they can get out the same way." Loch said, grumpily at the soldier.

Crimson stood for a second looking at the stunned soldier as he began to leave the room.

"Wait!" Crimson shouted to the soldier. "I'm going."

"What? No your not, I order you not to go!" Commander loch shouted at Crimson.

"Screw your orders." Crimson shouted slamming the door.

"Ok, Zer0 upload the Crimson access virus onto the main computer and Mimic, get us outa here!" Crimson said strapping himself into the Gun turrets. The Hephaestus hovered and span. It headed towards a gate, Gate 5, the gate began to open. "Crimson access… never fails."

The hover ship flew at lightning speeds across the Pipelines and finally they reached a hard line access point.

"ksh Time to Jack In ksh" Sync said across the com.

**Chapter 3**

The one, The two, The void 

"So, what do you need?" Sync asked.

"Besides a miracle? Guns, and lots of them." Crimson replied down the phone.

Crimson closed the phone as the stacks of armaments moved into place.

"Something like this has only been tried once before, and that was by the one, by neo." Zer0 said, taking a semi-automatic 9mm handgun off the shelf.

"I know, but it was before he had the power." Crimson said. As the walls of the matrix built room closed in around the four soldiers. The phone on the table in front of them began to ring, Crimson picked it up, put it to his ear and spoke.

"We're in!" The phone was hung up and they left the room.

"Operator."

"Tank? This is Crimson. I'm here to help."

"It's good to hear from you sir." Tank said, trying to find their location.

"What's the problem?" Crimson said, strait down to business.

"I don't know, they entered a club, where they were meeting with the oracle… but… the second they got inside it was as if they had been teleported across the globe."

"So, what's the problem?" Crimson sat in the red Nissan skyline he kept for missions and just drove around.

"Their in the void sir."

The Void, a place where no program dares to go, a sanctuary from battle and the eternal resting place of all who enter. No living soul has ever returned from the void. It is said that once an agent or a soldier of the un-plugged variety enters, all power is lost.

"You can't be serious? How'd they get in there?" Zer0 said, enraged at the thought of having to venture inside.

"Smith, he set a trap." Tank said, checking on the jacked in Morpheous, Trinity and Neo.

"We can't do it, No living soul has ever returned from the void. They say that once an agent or one of us enters, all our power is lost."

"If nobody has ever returned from the void how does one know that all power is lost?" Crimson said, snapping the phone shut and throwing it to Azure. "You've got a soldier to find, we'll get them out of there." Crimson said.

Azure moved the phone to her ear.

"Operator,"

"Sync, I need a motor." Azure said,

"Bike or car?"

"Bike"

"Ok, you got it, Just follow the Signs." Sync said.

"What Signs sync?"

"Follow the White rabbit." Sync hung up.

"Follow the white rabbit?" Azure repeated.

"There, that pet shop what do you see?"

"White rabbits," Zer0 said.

"And in front of it?" Cohalt said.

"Kawasaki Ninja. Got to go." Azure jumped out of the car, while it was sill moving, landing and rolling up to the bike, keys still in the ignition.

"Be as fast as humanly possible." Crimson said, speeding off to the void.

Azure leapt onto the Bike, turning the key and accelerating to the max. She turned the bike around and drove off towards a local apartment complex.

"-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-" Azure typed away, hacking into the government files, servers and criminal records. She was looking for hackers, programmers, and other types of computer crime specialists. She was looking for two in particular. A hacker named Mimic, or Sean Mc'euwan, and Elektro, or Kris. The best two hackers she'd heard of. They'd both only been caught once, both hacking into the English government computers and both by Crimson, or as he was called then, Dante Jenkins, Crimson, before being un-plugged, worked for the government, tracking hackers and hacking criminals.

She reached onto the desk the computer was on, got her drink and opened the bottle.

"This is gonna take a while." She muttered, as a new window of names came up on the screen. "Ok, maybe not so long." She cycled through the names, finally finding Mimic, address, and phone number, place of work. She took it down and continued her search.

"-Click-" Azure froze.

"Miss Cleonberg." Came an almost computerised voice from behind her. "So we meet again?"

"-Ring-ring-" Azures phone rang, she reached down, took it and answered it.

"What?" she said.

"Watch out, there's an agent coming." Sync said, urgently.

"You're a bit late."

"What? No, look he's outside."

"No, he's standing behind me with a gun to my head."

"What?"

The agent took the phone from Azures hand and moved it up to his ear, keeping the gun aimed perfectly towards her temple.

"Hello, Operator, as they seem to call you. Does your Matrix feed seem, a little, slow, today?"

"Who the hell is this?"

"Brewer, Agent Brewer."

"Pass me back to Azure, NOW!"

"Attitudes like that wont get you anywhere, Ms Sync."

"Pass me over!"

"Since I am a charitable person, I will allow you to speak to your friend, one last time." Brewer said,

"Sync?"

"Ok, I'm gonna make history here, I'm gonna give you the location without code."

"Ok,"

"Get to flat 23 the exit is there."

"How do I get there?"

"Out the door up the stairs, third door on your right."

Azure hung up, she began to stand, slowly.

"Ms Cleonberg, prepare to die." A phone rang upstairs, Brewer looked up suddenly and Azure knocked the gun away, kicking Brewer in the stomach and heading for the door.

She was at the door, left or right? Right, she ran on, choosing right rather than left, mainly because from previous experience, right usually worked, she kept moving, she could hear the agent behind her. He was closing in, bullets rushed past her, and suddenly she was in the arms of an agent. Also from previous experience she could discover that this agents name was Smith. He removed his arm from his pocket, producing a gun.

"You!" Brewer said when he finally reached the two of them.

"Yes, Me."

"You are an exile who will be deleted."

"Although…" A second smith emerged from an apartment.

"It may not be…" A third.

"As easy as it seems." A forth said.

Brewer looked around, he was obviously confused, and this went against all his programming.

All the Smiths began to raise their guns as Brewer kept looking around, trying to make sense of it, trying to create a 'logical' explanation,

But it was too late. All of Smiths bullets were already deeply embedded into Brewers Data. He dropped to the floor and changed into an old lady, creating a green electric bolt, which shot through the body before leaving it dead on the floor.

"Well miss Cleonberg. Is it? I don't believe we've had the pleasure." Smith said, turning her around and aiming his gun at, as before, her temple.

"This just isn't my day." Azure said, looking down.

"Yeas, it would seem that way." Smith said, but then the Smiths all spoke, but not as him. "More!" they said, eyes glowing green as if they were receiving a message. "We need more," they returned to normal, their eyes stopped glowing and they looked back down to Azure. "It seems that your getting out of trouble yet again, I'm needed in more pressing matters, I'll be seeing you."

And like that he and the other smiths were gone.

"This has just been such a weird day," Azure said as she ran up the stairs and into the ringing room, picking up the phone and un-plugging herself.

To be continued…


	2. Chapter 2

**The Matrix: _Crimson Chronicles_**

**Episode 2: The Void**

**Chapter 1: Entrance**

"Are you ok?" Sync said, still concentrating on the Matrix screen.

"Yeah, how are the guys?" Azure jumped off of the log in seat and ran over to the screen.

"They're just getting to the void." Sync tapped at some keys before pressing return and the screen zoomed in on Crimson, Zer0 and Cohalt.

"Ok, this is it, the Void…" Crimson said looking up and down this old apartment building, known in the area as the Devils Block.

"So… how are we gonna do this?" Zer0 said, looking up at the windows.

Crimson looked up as well, at one in particular. Crimson drew his gun and aimed it up at the centre of the window. Crimson Fired, the bullet sailed through the air. Almost at its target, it hit something, bouncing off and flying away.

"So jumping out of a windows outa the question." Crimson returned the gun to his Holster and stepped forward. He grabbed his phone and put it to his ear.

"Operator."

"Sync, I need a Switch, I'll have to go into the Void to get them out."

"You got it" Sync said hanging up the phone.

"What's a switch?" Zer0 asked.

"A belt, has an electro magnetic disruptor on it. It'll protect me from the effects of the void." Crimson said, as a belt with several small silver boxes on.

"You mean protect us, right?" Zer0 said.

"No, I'm going it alone." He began to walk forward and into the void. As he entered its atmosphere he started to glow gold. He opened the door and stepped in. He was in a dark corridor, it smelt moist and it was cold. Ahead of him he could hear movement. He took a step and the floor creaked. The movement stopped, possibly because of the noise. Crimson took another step. Something that could only be described as a monster came running around the corner. It stopped and looked at Crimson, he stared back, reaching into the holsters at his side and retrieving his double Walther P2K's. The creature began to run, Crimson jumped spinning upside down and firing upon the creatures back. The creature dropped to the ground. And it's blood seeped across the floor. Crimson landed, dropping to one knee, he looked up towards a doorway.

"Operator?" Crimson had picked up his mobile and dialled.

"Operator." Tank replied.

"Directions?"

"There on the second floor, but so are a lot of other things, I don't think there from this version of the matrix." Tank said, hammering at the keyboard.

"Lemme guess." Crimson turned to look at the downed monster. "Scaly, greenish snout around 6'19" in length and about 4'6" in height"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"The heap next to me is one of them."

"Oh… well I don't think that Neo can hold them forever."

"Got it. Out." Crimson snapped the phone shut.

Chapter 2: The Keeper 

Crimson stepped forward, looking around carefully. He had two directions to choose from, right or forward. To the right were bloodstained walls, limbs and what could be only classed as a tail. Ahead of him was a light, a light at the end of the tunnel, Right, he thought, definitely right. He stepped over the tail, getting blood all over his boots. He made his way towards the stairwell, making little to no sound. He kept his arms out ahead of him, guns held tightly aimed towards the centre of the walls. He got to the bottom of the stairs, he aimed up, clicking a switch, turning the small light under the barrel on. He took a step up the stairs. Again the floor creaked. He took another step, and crouched. He pushed down against the floor and jumped the rest of the way up the stairs. He did a flip while in the air and landed on one knee, face down. He looked up and stood up. He looked around. He had four choices, forward, left, right and through a hole in the ceiling. Crimson pressed a button on his wrist and a small grappling hook appeared from the metal box on his wrist. He aimed it up and fired, it made a small clap as it embedded itself in the ceiling of Neo's floor. He was brought up and was now hanging from the ceiling, surrounded by the creatures. Their glowing green eyes stared at him as one of them got up on its hind legs. Its snout began to shrink. The scales became smoother and his tail disappeared. Then his fore legs transformed into arms and his hind legs transformed into human ones. He was now a man. He was wearing a long lizard skin coat, snakeskin boots, a pair of Lizard skin trousers and a matching Lizard skin shirt. He had a small goatee and he skin was dry, it was as if he had scales. He had yellow eyes like snakes, with 1 long thin pupil.

"What do you want here?" he said, slightly hissing as he spoke.

"My friends, what do you want with them?" Crimson answered.

"Your… 'Friends' broke into my home, they must be punished." The man said with a slight air of anger.

"Your home? Who are you?" Crimson shouted

"I am the one they call, the Keeper, I control the Void, as you call it."

"You're a Program?"

"No, I'm much, MUCH more than that. Programs tremble at my ferocity. With one sweep of my claw… you it appears are also trespassing."

"No, I am only here to take my friends, and they are only hear because they were tricked. They were sent to destroy one of the more powerful programs, an Agent, but they were sent to a building that transported them here."

"This is none of my concern. They trespassed, and now they must pay the consequences." The Keeper said.

"But… I wont let that happen."

"I programmed this place, I make the rules, and if you help them, then I turn my attention towards you. My creations are hungry, and who am I to deny them a feast."

Crimson, looked around, and decided, "There's no way to change your mind… Is there?"

"It looks that way."

"Fine." Crimson reached into his pocket retrieving another oval object. He pulled the pin threw it to the program and dropped.

"What is this?" The Keeper pondered, staring at the grenade.

"Count to 3" Crimson shouted, running to the next set of stairs, trying to find another way to the Nebakaneza's Crew.

"hm… 3, 2…"

There was an explosion behind Crimson, which shook the entire void. Blood oozed through the floorboards from the ceiling.

"Dumb ass!" Crimson said, as he hopped over the banisters and onto the stairs. He ran as fast as he could, he was on the right floor but, which was the right room.

"Operator" Tank said,

"Tank?"

"Crimson? Where are you?"

"I'm on the right floor… but I don't know the room."

"Ok," Tank returned his view to the entire building.

"Hey, where did all those things go?"

"They got blown away, but I still need to know where to go," Crimson said, walking down the hall, phone to his ear.

"Ok, well, go to the end of the hall and then left." Tank said.

Crimson complied. "Now what?"

"The door in front of you." Tank said.

"Got it, out!"

Crimson put the phone down and walked forward, the door was locked.

Chapter 3: Exit Please 

"Keeper! Stay away." Crimson heard somebody shout. "I got a bullet here with your name on it."

"And I got a Grenade that's already vaporized that name." Crimson said calmly, there was silence and the door clicked, it had been unlocked, it opened slightly and a gun barrel appeared. The door opened a bit more and Neo's right eye became visible. The gun quickly disappeared and the door opened fully.

"Crimson, how did you…"

"No time, here," Crimson reached down to the switch and removed 3 metal boxes, giving one to each of them. They began to glow. "They'll give you back your power, but not all of it." Crimson said to Neo. "You will be given the power known to us."

"What?" Trinity and Neo asked.

"You will have the same abilities as me Trinity and Crimson" Morpheous translated.

"Oh,"

"Here, we might need to blow our way out of here. With the keeper gone, Agents may not feel too bad about coming here." Crimson handed over a grenade each and a fresh supply of ammo.

They left the room and began to go the way Crimson had come. It was quiet this made the group uneasy.

"It's a trap." Crimson thought "on the other hand it could be that I killed them all with that grenade."

They walked carefully down the first set of stairs; nothing, the second, also nothing, and finally, they were staring at the door. Crimson stepped forward and began to turn the handle as it exploded. Crimson flew backwards into a wall and onto the floor. He looked up, "Brewer," the first of the three agents, agent brewer, stepped in through the door, or at least where the door was.

"Mr Jenkins, Mr Anderson, and… Others." Brewer said, taking another step. "It appears we have a bit of a predicament, you seem to be, involved in a problem, which should soon, be rectified." Brewer finished talking moved his hand to his holster.

"Wait!" Crimson said, his biological brain working double time to think of a reason for him to wait. "Don't fire, do you realise what would happen if you fired in here?"

"What?" Brewer said, slightly annoyed.

"The interference of the Void sends all bullets towards, erm, Programs!" Crimson said, raising his arm, aiming the specially programmed gun and firing, the bullet shot around an open door and into the agents arm. "See."

"Fine, I suppose we'll have to fight then."

"Oh… that's not exactly what I meant." Crimson backed into the corridor and the others did the same.

"Mr Jenkins, Mr Anderson… goodbye."

A bullet fired and Brewer dropped to the floor, the familiar green electricity went over the corpse of a security guard who was now suffering from a bullet to the skull. Crimson looked around for where the shot had come from, above him on the stairs was Zer0, gun smoking and ready for more. He was wearing a switch and had blood all over his jacket, he must have had an encounter with one of the demonic Programs.

"Zer0! You disobeyed a direct order! Good one." Crimson said, after turning to look at him. "Goodbye." Crimson aimed his twin Program P2Ks over his shoulders and fired. Both the bullets embedded deeply in the hearts of their targets. They dropped to the floor and transformed into a pair of little girls who were probably playing jump rope 5 minutes before outside on the estate across the road.

"Lets go" Neo said, and the 5 of them stepped out of the void into the matrix. Waiting for them outside was Cohalt, but not as he was. He seemed paler than usual, and had a liquid that strongly resembled blood running down from his lip. Also, he was lying on the floor with a bullet wound to the stomach.

"Shit!" Crimson said, looking down on the victim of the deleted agents.

"We have to get out of here." Zer0 said, putting on his shades.

"Ok, lets go." Crimson holstered his guns and drew his phone. Morpheous did the same.

"Operator" Came the familiar voice of Sync.

"We need an exit." Crimson Said at the same time as Morpheous.

"Ok, I got one lined up for you, but it means splitting up from Neo and Morpheous." Sync said.

"Ok, but are you ok?" Crimson asked.

"Yeah why?" Sync asked

"You don't seem to be your usual cryptic self today."

"Whatever."

"Anyway, I think Neo can take care of himself now." Crimson took the switch off and placed it on the dead body of Cohalt, it disappeared along with the body.

"The exit is on 5th street bus station." Sync said, and she hung up.

"5th street bus station." Crimson said.

Morpheous hung up.

"Wash abbey drive" Morpheous said.

"So this is where we say, goodbye," Zer0 said, leaning against the car.

"See ya" Neo said as he crouched down and gained his concentration. He shot up into the air, circled around, came down, grabbed his partners flew off in the direction of their exit.

Chapter 4: Out of the frying pan 

The familiar feeling of cold and hot at the same time rushed through the duo's heads as they finally left the matrix.

On the floor in front of the hacking computer was a blanket over a corpse. Cohalt, was unquestionably dead.

"How did it happen?" Crimson asked kneeling down and paying is respects.

"The Agents snuck up on him, just after Zer0 entered the void." Sync said.

"And Azure?" Zer0 asked

"She got one name, an agent snuck up on her. She's…" Sync started.

"Dead? She can't be. 2 in 1 mission…" Crimson shouted angrily.

"In the control room getting ready to go." Sync butted in.

"Oh…" Crimson said.

"Dumb ass." Zer0 said, leaving the room and going to his quarters.

"So, we got the name, address?" Crimson asked.

"Yeah, and Phone number, place of work, the usual." Sync said.

"Which name did she get?"

"Mimic. Elektro was on the screen when she was attacked." Sync turned off their link to the matrix and stepped away from the computer.

"ksh Crimson! ksh" came the voice of Azure across the intercom.

Dante grabbed the microphone "What is it?"

"ksh There's a sentinel, but, it's no ordinary sentinel, it's enormous ksh" Azure said.

"What do you mean?"

"ksh Just get down here., Now ksh"

Crimson dropped the mic and ran, through the corridor, up the ladder and into the control room. In front of the Hephaestus was a large beetle like machine. Its fully armoured wings beat rapidly against the ground as a large mounted cannon aimed at the ship. It began to power up.

"Zer0" Crimson said across the intercom. "Get to the guns we got company." He turned to Azure "Charge the E.M.P."

To be continued…


	3. Chapter 3

**The Matrix: _Crimson Chronicles_**

**Episode 3:**

Chapter 1: A New Type Of Bug 

The beetle fired a large grenade like machine from its large mounted cannon. It exploded mid way, Zer0 had destroyed it.

"EMP charged sir." Azure said.

"Fire"

The large electro magnetic field exploded out onto the large Beetle like Machine. It hit it and kept going, but the Machine didn't stop.

"What happened?" crimson shouted.

"I-I don't know sir! Wait! There's something strange, it has some sort of energy fluctuation coming from it." Azure was looking at the specs on her computer screen. "It's blocking our EMP, sir!"

"What? Dammit." Crimson said. "We'll have to take it down Manually." Crimson turned and ran to the Gun turrets. "Ok, I need all available arms to the gun turrets. We have a problem."

"ksh On my way, Sir ksh" Sync said.

Crimson strapped himself into the seat, behind one of the front turrets. He moved his visor into place and studied the bug's anatomy. It seemed to be weak in certain areas but the strange field blocked them off. It began to charge its cannon again.

"Fire into the barrel of the cannon." Crimson shouted to his comrades.

Numerous gunshots fired into the air before hitting the beetle like machine directly down the barrel. There was an explosion and the beetle fell to the floor.

It stood up again, but it's wings were broken, and the field seemed to have diminished.

"Azure, charge the E.M.P" Crimson shouted, still blowing holes in the sentinels wings.

A few seconds passed in which the bug tried to hack the Hephaestus's systems by remote, but to no avail.

"ksh Charged sir. ksh" Azure said.

"FIRE" the EMP exploded out of the Hephaestus and through the Beetle. It dropped to the floor. The battle was over.

"Is…Is it over?" Zer0 said from the seat behind Crimson.

"Yeah. Now get as much data on this as you can, we need to tell Zion about this."

Chapter 2: Non-believers 

"I request a drop in all arms at gate 4, we have the Hephaestus on approach… open her up boys. Foods warm, Beds Made, welcome home." The operator said. The Hephaestus headed in, landing in docking bay 4.

"Good piloting Zer0, but I think that we'll still get a new member to pilot." Crimson said.

"That's cool, I don't enjoy it too much anyway. I much rather the guns."

"Ok, get everything ready when I've finished were getting Mimic out of there."

"Ok, cap'n"

As Crimson walked through Zion, he was given a number of odd looks, as if something was on his face, but not food, more like the look a mother gives someone with a swearword shaved into their hair when her child is with her. Crimson kept on until he got to the commanders office. He knocked and was grabbed by two or three guards.

"Traitor!" one of them shouted, while pushing Crimson to the floor. They cuffed him and lifted him to his feet. They began to escort him to the detention block.

"What hav…" they knocked him out, reducing him to a pile of humanity on the floor.

When Crimson awoke he was in a lie detector. He tried to move but was strapped to a chair.

"So…" Commander Loch walked in and began to talk. "…What is it that you would like to talk to me about?"

"What? You tie me up and expect me to help you?" Crimson asked.

"What? You, help me? You'd better help me or I'll have you executed for treason."

"On what grounds?" Crimson was distraught he hadn't done anything, not recently anyway, besides if he was executed they'd never know about the large beetle like sentinel.

"On the grounds that last time you were here you blew away our defences with your 'crimson access' program." Loch said.

"I had to save the Nebakaneza. And YOU were gonna let them die." Crimson shouted.

"Where is the evidence of that? For all we know you went to the void and destroyed the Nebakaneza's crew the second you logged in."

"What? There not back? They must have been attacked on the way back, by the things we came to warn you about."

"LIES! Now tell me what you've done with the Nebakaneza."

"NOTHING!" the needle, on the lie detector had so far been zigzagging back and forth as it should, but at this it stopped, it was a straight line, this was unheard of, lie detectors always have zigzagging lines. He must have broken it. But all he did was tell the truth.

"Damn faulty truth detector. Now, what is it that you came here for?"

"I came to warn you." Crimson said, he was tired and his consciousness was fading.

"Warn me of what?"

"New…" Crimson collapsed.

"What is this?" Crimson said, grabbing the bars of his cell.

"Your to be held here until we've inspected the Hephaestus and the battle records." The guard said, clutching a smaller version of the EMP rifle.

"What are they looking for?" Crimson pulled himself up on the bars.

"They want to know what happened and then their going to ask you, to make sure your telling the truth."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Everyone needs something to believe in." The guard walked away and was replaced with commander Loch.

"Captain."

"Dip-stick"

"Lets go, you are to leave the city of Zion and to return once every 3 months to recharge. Apart from that you are in exile. As is whoever leaves with you."


End file.
